Category Archives: Shengshou

Well, as an obvious step up from yesterday’s Megaminx, it’s the turn of the giga today.

Solve-wise, I don’t think there is much of a difference – than there is between solving a 3×3 and a 4×4.

Saying that, this was a gift possibly two Christmases ago (from my wish list), but hasn’t been solved very many times. So it is hard to remember…

If I’m right quite a lot of people weren’t overly impressed with this puzzle. I did a few turns this morning when I picked it up to take to work and it seems to turn well enough. The stickers are all intact and it’s a comfortable weight. It’s OK. Not going to break any speed solving records, especially now that the cheaper and better Shengshou version is available.

The amount of times I solve this puzzle tells me that I have no need for the Shengshou, but if you don’t have a Gigaminx already, that’s probably the road for you.

So, after I learned my lesson the other week – a quick summary. A cube that’s not a cube? Basically, this is a 3×3 x 12. Of sorts. It’s works the same and interacts the same way as a 3×3 does, just with more sides to solve. The same algorithms work – just with a slight modification – to twist a face back to starting position takes five turns instead of the normal three on a 3×3 cube. Not rocket science and with a bit of figuring, should be easy enough if you can solve a standard cube.

This one is a Shengshou. Nothing special. Well, I say that but my Amazon order history shows this was the first non 3×3 puzzle I bought (I think I bought an official Rubik’s 3×3, then a Dayan Panchi, which was a birthday gift, then a Dayan Zanchi and then this). So a bit of a milestone.

I vaguely remember getting it. And figuring it out on my own – I was very new to vining, but was able to do this with my very small knowledge of solving a 3×3.

Considering how cheap this was, it’s a very nice puzzle. Well made, turns VERY well, well stickered. I can’t really fault it. It’s definitely not a speedsolving puzzle, but that’s not really my bag, so I am happy with it.

If you have a fairly large collection, I’m sure you already have a megaminx. If you don’t, branch out – give it a try!

What was also pretty obvious was that yesterday’s post wasn’t very good – I must admit, I did rush it, but it wasn’t just that. I realised I didn’t really know who I was blogging for – there have been some comments that this is good for new cubers to see the different types of puzzle available. Probably not much use for experienced cuber who probably have a lot of these puzzles.

So then, I realised it probably wouldn’t be very clear to a new cuber what a bump cube actually is!! So, I am going to try to explain that in each post from now on – experienced cubers can bear with me (we’ve all been new to something sometime, right?) and hopefully, it will be of use to newer cubers.

So…….a mirror, or bump cube is a 3×3 shape mod (still has the same mechanical structure as a 3×3, but the outer shapes of the pieces are different). As opposed to a sticker mod, where the pieces are the same snap, but the puzzle is stickered differently to change the look and difficulty of the puzzle (see previous posts on super cubes). I will show a 3×3 sticker mod tomorrow.

Although, saying that, it is a slight sticker mod although the stickers don’t affect the difficulty – every piece is shaped differently, so has an exact position – if this was a normal 3×3 covered in stickers that were all the same colour, it would be pretty easy – right??

The structure here is the same – 3 layers, centres, edges and corners. The pieces are just shaped differently – layer one is thin, two is about normal and three is BIG. Turning is the same, solving is the same – find a piece (the difficult bit) then place it as you normally would (the easy bit!!).

As I said yesterday, this was a gift bought from Amazon, for only a few pounds – can be bought from pretty much any cube shop for not very much money.

Give it a try, you might like it.

Now, if only I could afford for tomorrow’s cube of the day to be a 4×4 mirror cube!

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Bit of a cheat today, but without the calendar cube, there would be no blog! And with the power of RUBBISH Photoshopping, HERE IT IS!

I’d wanted to start up a blog, or website, or something to do with cubes for ages, but there didn’t seem to be any point in just another solution site, or reviews of the same old 3×3 cubes. So, I didn’t make one.

Then, one day at work, I was changing the date on this cube and the idea of a Cube of the Day hit me. I don’t know if it’s the best idea, or how long I will keep it up for, but it’s an idea!!

Anyway, back to business!

This was a gift for Christmas – I had wanted one for a while, but couldn’t find one in the UK. In hindsight, I could have bought a cheap cube and a sticker set, but a gift is always nicer!

So, I’ve had it for a year and a half now. It lives on my desk at work. It’s been solved every work day I’ve been there since I’ve had it. I would guess it is probably my most broken in, solved cube! It gets more action than all of them out together!!

It came from Puzl and was about ten pounds, I think. Not too bad – it’s not the greatest cube, but it definitely isn’t the worst either.

You’ve seen it already – I don’t care! So happy it is complete, I could make it the Cube of the Day every day this week!!

I won’t. But I could…

It’s been a long time coming. If you don’t know – I bought this a while back on eBay. It was SUPER cheap, £10 plus shipping. Only problem – it was disassembled. But the seller promised all parts were there.

It was delivered. I began.

I started by installing the small, internal pieces. This took a long time – I have big hands and fingers and really struggled to get them all in at the same time, but I guessed they would provide some stability.

As I put some in, I knocked some more out. This went on for a while. Finally I got to the last couple of sets and then realised one of the pieces was missing….

I emailed the seller to check if he had it anywhere. No joy. I started trying to find one online. A long search found that The Cubicle had spare parts for it. In panic, mode – I ordered one.

In hindsight, this should have triggered an alarm and made me check the rest of the pieces were there. But no. Too stupid. I ordered one, single piece for about $18. Shipping was so expensive. But I wanted to build it. Desperately.

The Cubicle took a while to post it, but when they did, the actual journey was super quick. AND just to be sure I had the right piece, they sent me a set of all four internal pieces. I wanted to kiss them!

I got the whole internal structure complete. Then began on the outer pieces. This took a while – I didn’t really figure out which went together – just kept hunting for each, individual piece.
When I got my act together and figured out which went together and where, the pace picked up.

I was racing through. Before I know it, I was left with the last layer.

But bad luck struck again. By some coincidence, Red was missing a piece. As I found out when I got right to the end.

Sadly, I went back to The Cubicle again. Ordered the last piece and waited.

It came.

Down to the final few pieces. I was expecting to have to take a lot out, but in a rather anti-climactic turn of events, the thing was finished in about two minutes!

I haven’t got my money back from eBay yet, but that’s next on the list.

Anyway, here it is in all its scrambled glory:

I am amazed to say how well this turns. I thought it was going to be a dog, but I lunes it as I built it. Did one solve last week and it moves SO WELL. Very happy with this cube.

Ps – I definitely won’t get this solved in a lunchtime, but that’s ok!

I went at it in earnest yesterday to get it finished. Made quick progress.

Had a plan of attack to build up the sides, then infill the top.

Things went swimmingly. Then came the last layer. Like any cube, where the problems begin…

I don’t have the smallest hands in the world, so had already really struggled with the internal pieces without the rest of the pieces to worry about. When they started coming out as I was putting external pieces in, I expected trouble.

I got the first side filled in. With lots of bother. As I got closer to the end, I got more worried….

Well, I was right. I seem to have gotten much quicker at finding and placing the pieces. In quite a short space of time, I got another quarter done – it was a long day yesterday, so I didn’t do any more.

I will probably finish in another two sessions. One tonight and one tomorrow. Fingers crossed, all of the pieces will be there….

So, a while ago, I found a massive bargain on eBay – a Shengshou 10×10. I won the auction at a price of £10 plus £5 shipping. Crazy cheap.

There was only one catch – it was in pieces. But all the pieces were there. Apparently.

I received it quickly in the post, and started putting it together. Quite soon on, I realised a piece was missing. The seller offered me my money back, but I discovered that The Cubicle stocked spare parts. Shipping cost was expensive, but still meant the cube was a steal.

They took some time to ship the piece, but once they did. It came quickly. And instead of just the one piece, they actually sent me a whole set of the four internal pieces. Very nice.

So after all this waiting time, today was the day to begin assembly properly. Much excitement. Kids put to bed. The dinner/play doh table became the assembly room.

I had done a bit of assembly before the missing piece was discovered – one, or maybe two 5x5x1 corners squares. But I didn’t really know what I was doing.

With a while to think about it, I now had quite a game plan and knew how to get going. Place in all of the internal pieces to (hopefully) add some stability to the core before working in the big, edge wedges and then the smaller pieces.

And use tape. LOTS of tape.

I did fairly well – one whole quarter done. No explosions, or tears, or lost pieces.

More to be done tonight (although it is 4.30am and I am wide awake). Hopefully progress will be quicker – I found myself fishing around for pieces still trying to figure what goes where. I have a new plan to tackle this, to hopefully speed things up. I’ll update tomorrow.